The first is that which maintains that the pas sage is to be literally understood. According to this interpretation, which is the most ancient, the sun itself, which was then believed to revolve round the earth, stayed its course for a day-. Those who take this view argue that the the ory of the diurnal motion of the earth, which has been the generally received one since the time of Galileo and Copernicus, is inconsistent with the Scripture narrative. Notwithstanding the general reception of the Copernican system of the universe, this view continued to be held by many divines, Protestant as well as Roman Cath olic, and was strenuously maintained by Buddeus (Hist. Eccles. V. T., Halle, 1715, 1744, p. 828, sq.) and others in the last century.
But in more recent times the matter has been explained so as to make it accord with the now received opinion respecting the earth's motion, and the Scripture narrative supposed to contain rather an optical and popular, than a literal ac count of what took place on this occasion. So that it was in reality the earth, and not the sun, which stood still at the command of Joshua.
Another opinion is that first suggested by Spi noza (Tract. Theolog.-Politic. c. p. 22, and c. vi.), and afterwards maintained by Le Clerc (Coninicnt. in /oc.), that the miracle was pro duced by refraction only, causing the sun to ap pear above the horizon after its setting, or by some other atmospherical phenomena, which pro duced sufficient light to enable Joshua to pursue and discomfit his enemies.
(5) Quotation from Poetical Work. Others believe with Wakefield that the book of Jasher was a poetical work written to celebrate the won derful military achievements of Israel, and that the author of the book of Joshua merely quoted this passage without expecting any one to under stand it as history.
It will be seen that the sense of the narrative in Joshua is complete without this quotation which is duly credited to the book of Jasher. Neither historians nor poets expect such descriptions to be cramped within the bonds of literal interpreta tion. We find often similar expressions in mod
ern verse, and it is frequently noted in the early poets among the Romans and also the Greeks ; for instance in the Iliad we find: "They fought like fire conglob'd ; nor hadst thou deemed The sun exempt from danger, nor the moon." Yet no one would suppose that Homer intended to convey the idea that the sun or moon was in actual danger of destruction in consequence of the furious fighting before the walls of Troy.
An illustration very similar to that used in the book of Jasher is found in the Odyssey, where it is said that': "Pallas backward held the rising day, The wheels of night retarding, to detain The gay Aurora in the wavy main." When a historian makes a quotation from a poetical work and duly credits it as in the case of Joshua, it is not supposed that' his readers will interpret a rhetorical hyperbole as literal his tory.
(6) Opinion of Maimonides. The last opin ion we shall mention is that of the learned Jew aimonides (More Ncvo. c. 53), viz. that Joshua only asked of the Almighty to grant that he might defeat his enemies before the going down of the sun, and that God heard his prayer, inasmuch as before the close of day the five kings with their armies were cut in pieces. Grotius, while he admitted that there was no difficulty in the Almighty's arresting the course of the sun, or making it reappear by refraction, approved of the explanation of Maimonides, which has been since that period adopted by many divines, including Jahn, among the Roman Catholics (who explains the whole as a sublime poetical trope, Introd. p. ii. sec. 3o), and among orthodox Prot estants, by a writer in the Berlin Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, Nov. 1832, supposed to be the editor, Professor Hengstenberg (Robinson's Bib lical Repository, 1833, vol. iii, p. 791, sq. See HOp kins' Plumbline Papers, Auburn, 1862, ch. vii.).